train train

I want to take a train ride somewhere. I desperately want to take the train.

I love train journeys. I don’t know I have some interesting memories of them. As a kid we always went everywhere in trains. May brother and me loved the top berth and jumping in after climbing up. Over the years, I have seen the trains get dirty and the bathrooms become even dirtier. I don’t know if I am up to it too much these days, but the call of the train is coming back. I want to go somewhere in a train.

The stress of work is getting to me right now and I need to escape and wind down somewhere. I think a train journey gives you the perfect escape, the gentle rocking of the train, nothing to do but look out of the window and see the amazing Indian landscape just run by. At speed. I remember the trees at the distance. Zipping by. Then I would focus on the next tree coming into view only to see it zip by. Then the bridges over the small roads. Then the huts. And the people, the villagers in cycles, waiting for the train to go by before they cross over.

Even thinking about it makes me feel a little happier, a funny feeling comes over me. A feeling that I might have lost that little feeling of emptiness. Being happy with emptiness, not being stressed out and not being bothered with doing nothing. Just relaxing and forgetting work/ school/ friends etc, everything, anything. I want to go a train trip.

I like waiting for my turn to use the wash basin, and then stand by the door, leaning out and getting your face hit by the wind.

I have some crazy memories. One was when we were going forth and coming back from a youth music conference at Dehradun, with my friends and some other delegates. It was Mumbai to Dehradun in the middle of summer. And playing UNO all day on the way back.

Second one was – Going to Delhi from Agra with Jasmine on our honey moon. We met the rowdies who didn’t want us to put out the berth and let us sleep in a booked berth. Just because it was their daily routine. I think I would have gotten beaten up, if not for a fellow traveler who engaged them in a long conversation. Thanks, you nameless beautiful friend.

Third – My friend V-inu and I, going to Allahabad from Mumbai to attend the Ardh Kumbh festival. We were stuck together in an AC first class coupe for a day and a half with an air freshener that put out a hideously sweet perfume every 30 minutes.

Fourth – the many many trips I had going to Gujarat and back, with family. It was always something interesting when we got into the train in the evening and then have dinner of theplas, aloo sabzi, dahi and chundo.

Fifth – going to Kerala from Mumbai in the old route that took us from the heart of Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana), when in the evening you will see the landscape of large rocks and hard ground. In the morning you wake up and the train has somehow reversed its orientation and going in the opposite direction of what it was when you slept. And boom, you are in Kerala, green and dense and crazy beautiful.

Sixth – my train ride from Rajkot to Mumbai, where I got the ticket an hour before the train left in Tatkal. My cousin put me on it. As I slept in the side berth, I was woken up by some of the fellow passengers. My wallet had slipped from my back pocket and had fallen. I picked it up and thanked them. That train ride I wouldn’t forget because, I reached home to know that my dad passed away in the evening. No cell phone those days. Ya. It’s a bit of tough memory, that ride.

Seventh – I don’t know from where to where but I remember in a train as a child and my dad outside on the platform and I remember wanting dad to get back in, before he misses the train. Of course there was no chance of him missing it but still, that fear was there in me as a child. I must have been 5 or so.

Eight – train ride as a kid from Nerul to Matheran, in a toy train. Aww, come on. Who doesn’t remember those rides?

Ninth – recent one from Delhi, we took the train back just for Jispa to get a feel of the train. I remember sitting in the Rajdhani on the top side berth with her and explaining the US elections to her. It was a nice long conversation.

Tenth? Guess that yet to come.

Two / three train journeys I want to do now – To Bharatpur see bird sanctuary and back, to Delhi and see Red Fort and back, to Ahmedabad and Manek chowk eating and back. Let’s see.

Bonus feature. Song from Bunty and Bubli. I loved this song and loved listening to it with Jispa when she was little!

nopes!

The more I think about it and the more experiences I have in life, I get that one thing my brother about Delhi Station is true about life in general.

Delhi Station is a mad place. You get off and you are accosted by touts of all types of slime and sleaze. Everyone wants to thug you and you can’t get a decent conversation happening with anyone. In fact what conversation, asking someone for directions itself can be very stressful and crazy. Many years ago we landed at Delhi station and we were told to move to the rail yatri nivas to stay. As a family we got down and started wondering where to go. A tout just kept talking to my dad and then finally showed us a few hotel pics and booked us a hotel to stay in. this was on the return leg of our journey. Dad thought he was booking us a good hotel.  Needless to say – the experience wasn’t that great. We had booked two rooms and the AC from one was flowing to the other via a duct made and other such weird stuff. Those days there was no internet and we don’t hear about the Lonely Planet and there were defiantly no Trip advisor. So choosing where to stay and where to go and what to do was one hell of a nightmare. Before you go anywhere, you have to ask people where they went, think of an itinery that was largely based on theirs and the hotel that they went to. People would have records of hotels and rooms and the phone numbers of the hotels they stayed in. this was very valuable information. The agents were essentially people who could arbitrage on the knowledge of hotel names and numbers. That was all. Things have moved up quite a bit. Now people know where to go and what to see from searching the internet. Jasmine and I came up with our own formula… Lonely Planet plus internet. Curation plus peer discovery! This has worked for us. And GPS… the bets thing is that now you know exactly where you are. When I was selling the Backberry concept to my brother in law – I showed him GPS. Now in a train, you don’t need to look out of the window or ask someone where you were. You simply opened your cellphone and you knew if your station is coming or is far away. This is especially useful if you are waking up in the middle of the night for your station and are wondering if the train is late or which station just passed!

Cut to my brother’s experience – he once alighted at Delhi station and refused to talk to the touts. He was making a beeline  for the tourist office. On the way the tout kept following him talking all the time. And then at one point the tout just said ‘look, the office is shut’. My brother lifted his head and sure enough there was a board of the tourist office and it was shut.  I don’t know afterwards what really happened but my brother then realized that the tout was pointing out to the wrong office which had moved. That’s when told me – in Delhi station – you should not even listen to the touts. Even listening is a crime.

I find this real in office as well. There are some real bad ass guys. People who gossip and spread evil vile around them. Even talking to them is a crime. They slowly make you believe that they are on your side, they gain your trust and confidence and then pass on gossip to you…. and then, they POISON your mind. Such people must be avoided no matter how sweet they sound or how nice a company they are. They give you the juiciest gossip but at the same time are the ones who will not hesitate  to use your name or you as a target of their gossip. Even listening to them is a crime. Hanging around, talking or texting or anything with them will only poison your mind. These guys are slow boa constrictors. These are available all around you. I keep telling Jispa that in school or in class or at the pool, these people must be avoided. After I have realized this and I preach it to all I care about, I have been seeing more of this. Positive nice people fill your mind with positivity. They help you think and take right calls and make better decisions. The bad ones, they figure out a way to co-opt you in their plan. They have sinister plans and then squeeze you in their plan. Without knowing so you are involved and a part of their support group and boom – there goes your credibility.

I have learnt over a period of time to simply not listen, avoid and if unavoidable – not encourage the conversation. And when they co opt you, it takes effort but there is no shame in saying, Sorry yaar – I am part of this. I disagree or nopes… I don’t care about this. At first it’s so difficult for nice guys to do any of this, but if you value your credibility and your sanity, you will disagree. Its then very easy to simply say no and weasel out. Avoid them like plague.